Future maritime leaders from more than 70 countries graduated this week (3 November) from International Maritime Organization (IMO)’s World Maritime University (WMU) in Malmö, Sweden.
WMU was founded in 1983 by IMO as a center of excellence for maritime postgraduate education, research, and capacity building. It offers unique postgraduate educational programs, undertakes wide-ranging research in maritime and ocean-related studies and helps build maritime capacity in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Quality education is itself one of the SDGs – SDG 4.
The graduating class of 2019 comprises 250 Graduates from 79 countries, approximately a third of whom are women.
There were 131 MSc graduates from the Malmö headquarters, 42 graduates from the China program, three PhD graduates and 74 graduates from the various distance learning programs. The class of 2019 brings the total number of WMU graduates to 5,167 from 170 countries.
IMO Secretary-General and WMU Chancellor Kitack Lim is the first WMU graduate to hold these positions. At the graduation ceremony, he highlighted the profound impact WMU had on his life and noted the responsibility the graduates now have as they return to their home countries.
He said “I urge every one of you to assume ownership and shoulder your part of the responsibility of moving the world forward in a sustainable manner and leaving no one behind. You are now in the enviable position of having the knowledge and the power to turn ideas into reality. This will improve our lives, benefit our countries, our regions, and our planet.”